Hi all,

A little background on my truck: it is a 22rte trubo truck that I rebuilt the engine on about 6 months ago. New head, cam, valves, block, rods, exhaust manifold, a new turbo, and an ignition system from FAST with boost retard. I have been driving the truck for about 6 months, and it hasn't run the best that i knew it could. A few days ago I retorqued the head studs, adjusted valve clearances, got TPS to spec, and set base timing, and took it for a test ride. Truck ran wonderfully, stopped, started, and drove at highway speeds. Later that day I went for a drive and noticed that the engine was losing power and making some funny noises. I have a wideband and watched as the AFR went lean off the charts. I broke down in the middle of a busy road, and had to have a cop push me onto a side street, where the truck sat overnight. I went out the next morning, and the truck started right up and drove wonderfully. I drove it home, parked it, and then could not get the engine to start all day. This morning I went out, and the truck started 100 percent of the time multiple times, and drove around the block a couple of times. A few hours later I went to start it, and nothing.

The engine cranks, but there are no pops. AFR is lean off the charts. I checked and fuel pressure is good. I hooked up a timing light to each spark plug wire, and they all flashed.
Engines need fuel, air, and spark. Fuel pressure is good, is there a way to check if the injectors are firing? Air is obviously good if wideband is sensing lean, right? And power is getting to the spark plugs.

I was able to pull 3 engine codes at various times of the engine not working while trying to crank the engine over. If i'm not cranking, there are no engine codes. The 3 codes I got were 3 blinks, 11 blinks, and 14 blinks. 3 and 11 I have seen on and off ever since the new ignition system. 14 blinks is the one that confuses me.

Sorry for so many words, but I am quite confused. Anyone have any Ideas of where to go from here?

thanks

 

Please include the name if the error code when you post stuff like this..


Iirc. 14 is no rpm signal so no rpm means no injector pulses.

 

14 is turbochargerpressure/AFM/ECU according to my haynes, chilton, and FSM
3 is ignitor signal
11 is TPS

 

I performed static and dynamic ohms tests on the AFM, and all seems to be well.

 

Code 3 no igf (igf is the ignitor telling the ECU it fired)
Code 11 (IDL not closed or AC on while diag terminals closed)
Code 14, over boost/fuel cut off..

Start with the code 3, check the wiring between the distributor and ignitor then the ignitor to the ECU. These both are routed over the hot side of the engine and known failure points. Particularly if they have been repaired/shortened they run much closer to the exhaust manifold, similar they fail pretty quickly without the heat shield in place.

Code 11 is easy, turn off the ac, quit mashing the throttle while in diag mode or adjust your tps so your IDL isn't open.

Code 14, less throttle, downshift out of OD before you floor the pedal to pass. In a rare case your vafm spring is worn out and you can adjust the spring abit richer (don't blame me if the head gasket fails..)

 

Thanks for such a thorough reply! It is supposed to rain here for a few days, so I might not be able to work on things for a bit. I guess it is time to start making a list.

I will definitely recheck the wiring between the distributor and ignitor, that one is routed away from the manifold, but is stretched a bit. The 3 wires leaving the ignitor going to the ECU routes across and behind the engine, and I want to reroute that to across the core support where there is less heat and it will be less visible.

I don't have AC, and have adjusted the TPS to go to inf resistance with a .85mm shim according to 4crawler's write up.

Code 14 only shows when I am cranking the engine. Downshifting will do nothing for me right now if the engine isn't starting haha. After all of my research it seems like adjusting the spring on a VAFM is pretty unproductive and really isn't recommended by anyone with two hemispheres.

Because the engine ran a few times, I am seriously thinking that it is a wiring issue.

 

While I certainly haven't seen it all this case being a good example. I've never seen it throw an over boost code while cranking, it just shouldn't do that!

This code gets triggered when the vane moves "to fast" (VS/load changes too rapidly) so if it's not a voltage regulator (vcc regulator is internal to the ECU) the is something physically wrong with the vafm..

 

This morning I went out to my truck, sat down, put the keys in the ignition, and cranked.... the engine started quite easily. I ran it for a few minutes, then turned it off, and restarted it. everything seemed fine, so I drove it a couple miles around the neighborhood block. I then parked for an hour, went out and the engine started back up again. No error codes, running a little lean off the bat at about 16, but after a few revs I got it back to around 15. Usually it is pretty spot on 14.7i, so I wanted to drive around to see if it would re adjust. I made it a few blocks with things running alright. Then I started from a stop sign, and felt the engine struggle. I watched the AFR go up lean, and had to jam the gas pedal all the way just to maintain speed, then even that wasn't enough and it all died. At that point I pulled out my handy paper clip to check error codes, and all I was getting was the 14 blinks. I pushed about 3/4 of a mile home. I then tried to start the engine and got the 11 blink switch signal error code as well as the 14 blink turbo code.

Thanks for listening to my story, I don't want to leave details out.

If the problem is the AFM, maybe it is time to try swapping in that 5m AFM that I've had sitting around.

 

That IDL switch code only happens when TE is grounded. So there are one of three things going on.

1: you left the diagnostics jumper in.
2: you have a short to ground in the harness, the diagnostics plug, maybe if you're lucky the plug grounded to something.
3: You have an ECU failing.


Wouldn't be a bad idea to check all your power and ground connections, the various voltages like battery posts vs terminals vs at the ecu. And all the engine harness plugs are clean firm and tight.

Voltage drop across the EFI relay underload etc.

ECU is an expensive part to throw at a problem hoping for a fix.

 

I most likely left the jumper in, you are so right about that one!

I printed this out, and went out with my voltmeter



I went through all that I could without being able to run and idle and get up to temp. Everything checks out beautifully.

 

Can you undo the FAST ignition and go back to stock, at least during the troubleshooting?

 

I had considered that! I did put in connectors years ago so that i could do that if needed, but that hasn't been an issue til now.... if only i knew where that dang stock ignition coil was hiding....

But yeah good idea, you're spot on. That may have moved to first thing for me to do when this rain stops.

 

I couldn't find the stock coil, but wire the stock setup through the new coil and no luck still. I put a jumper in my AFM for the fuel cut circuit, and still no luck.

Fuel, air, spark. All an engine needs. I have spark, and air is a given. All I know about fuel is that the line has pressure. Is there a test for fuel injectors?

I've hooked up a timing light to all spark plug wires, and they appear to flash semiregularly.

 

Electrically, just a basic ohm's test. 1.5-3.0 ohms across the two terminals on the injector itself. The only other test for the injector is a physical flow test.
But by your description I'd lean away from injectors. You need to get further upstream and figure out what point of failure would shut down a entire system. To have four injectors fail simultaneously is very remote.

 

Well, I am pretty convinced at this point that it was AFM issues. I plugged in my 5m AFM, and the engine started first try. After about 15 seconds of running fine, the AFR goes to about 10, and bogs if I try to open the throttle. I also get 2 blinks(AFM signal) and 8 blinks (intake air temp).

So the error codes point to my new AFM not working right, but the engine starts, which means it runs better than not!

 

CODE 14...

His ECU is shutting off the injectors (and would do the ignition also if it had a Toyota ignitor module in place..)

 

I swapped the guts of the 5m AFM with the guts from the original AFM, and got the truck to run nicely. Drove it around the block a few times, ran it until it was fully warmed up, and ran it for a bit more. I then turned it off and try to restart, and it did. 30 minutes later It started and ran fine. I watched a movie and went back 2 1/2 hours later.... nothing. Cranks and cranks, and when I jump the tester, I get Code 14 again.

I am wondering if y'all know exactly how the engine determines that the boost is too high. Seems to me that the only sensor it would have to tell is the AFM.

 

VS, and rpm are what it's derived from, with maybe a pinch of VTA.. Good luck!

There were some code dumps floating around a decade or so ago on uhm maybe the mr2 or celical forums.

 

My understanding of these systems are mediocre at best, I just want to clarify what you mean by that. VS and VTA are both the variable resistance in the AFM ant TPS respectively? I am so close to getting a new AFM and new TPS, but don't want to be just throwing new parts at an old problem.

 

good idea since it probably has more to do with your aftermarket ignition and the IGf signal that comes out of the factory ignitor module.

The big clue here is it happens during cranking and there is no load on the engine.